The North East is being abandoned by the Coalition

As the content of the Chancellor's Budget continues to keep the media talking, the Labour MP for Gateshead
Ian Mearns previews a debate he will initiate in Parliament today, Tuesday 17 April, on the impact of the budget on the North East.

Blast furnaces have just been restarted on Teesside, but good news stories in the north east are few and far between. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

King William the First sought to quell the north following the Norman conquest with a policy of slash and burn to subjugate unruly barons and the Saxon citizenry. This government has developed a 21st century scorched earth policy for the north.

After the recent budget, the Treasury highlighted three measures that benefited the north east. One that applies everywhere is the increase in personal allowances. At the other end of the tax scale, nearly 195,000 individual taxpayers in the three south eastern regions reaped the benefit of the Chancellor's higher-end tax give-away, but just 5,000 in the North East.

Newcastle will receive £10 million to become a 'super connected city' but the city represents just 10% of the regional population. The Treasury also bragged about another paltry £10 million for the feeble Local Enterprise Partnerships that replaced the successful regional development agency. Such relatively meagre contributions don't amount to a row of beans when you look at economic reality in the north east which has borne the brunt of this government's policies. Unemployment has risen from 8.3% to 10.5% in Gateshead and from 6.7% to 8.2% for the region as a whole.

Welfare benefit changes will also have a massively disproportionate impact on the north east. Gateshead council fears that the new universal credit will mean 14,500 Gateshead tenants having to manage larger payments each week and fuelling expensive borrowing including illegal money lending. Non-payment could further diminish council revenues.

Our local authorities too face massively disproportionate cuts. Gateshead has lost 1,500 staff to cut £70 million which is equivalent to £88 per head of population. The 12 least-deprived authorities in the south lost less than £20 per head.

Imposing VAT on hot takeaway food impacts most on those with the lowest incomes and slashed the value of Tyneside businesses such as Gregg's. The pasty tax may undermine the Gregg's Foundation which donated over £1.4 million last year to support breakfast clubs in scores of North East schools and youth groups.

Criticism of the government is more widely shared. The North East Chamber of Commerce urges a greater focus on strengthening investment and cutting employment taxes, to address key weaknesses in the north east economy.

George Osborne. Will he listen during the debate? Photograph: Dominic Lipinski/PA

The Chancellor talks the talk on capital spending in infrastructure to support long-term growth and rebalance the economy. But IPPR analysis reveals that he isn't walking the walk at least for the north east. Eleven of the 20 largest infrastructure projects benefit London and the south east. Only five of the top 20 benefit the three northern regions. Over half of regional transport projects that involve public funding benefit London.

If London and the south east are considered together they account for 84% of planned spending compared to only 6% in the three northern regions, and an unbelievably miniscule 0.04% for the north east. For each £1,000 of Gross Value Added generated in 2009, £81 is being spent on transport projects in London, £38 in the south east, £12 in Yorkshire & Humber, £8 in the North West and less than 50 pence in the north east.

This snapshot of the realities of the north east emphasises why we think that the old mantra that "we are all in it together" is not only hollow, but disingenuous, and it is worth noting that the Chancellor has abandoned this pretence.

In these circumstances, and given the example of devolution in Scotland, it's little surprise that there is an increasing interest in going the whole hog by establishing regional parliaments and re-establishing our regional development agency. The north east has been neglected by Westminster but is being abandoned by the Coalition.